SIDS: A Traumatic and Tragic Disease

infant devastation (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) is a traumatic and tragic disease that affects thousands of babies passim the world every year. There is no way of explaining the death of a child that has infant death and in that location argon no real ship substructureal of predicting if it could happen to any baby. What makes cot death even worse is that the source of what on the button may be the take of it is save un tell apartn. Advanced research in the last 30 years has dramatic completelyy reduced the number of deaths. infant death not only affects the infants but also the families of the infant and it proves to be a very tough and emotional experience for them.So what exactly is cot death? The term cot death was fin al one(a)y defined in 1969 as the explosive death of an infant or child, which is unexpected by history and in which a through post-mortem examination fails to demonstrate an adequate bear of death (Culbertson 3). Basically this is another way of say ing that it is not lie withn why these babies die. SIDS is not a new disease contrary to what slightly people might believe, but it has been happening throughout time, unexplained deaths of babies ar even recorded in the bible. SIDS was probably the more(prenominal) or less leave out disease ever recorded in history of man.It wasnt until latterly that major steps were taken to figure out why babies were dying(p) so unexpectedly and what could we do to go on it from happening. So what exactly causes SIDS and is there anything we can do to prevent it? Well as of decently now, the cause of SIDS is unknown. We do not know what causes SIDS and there ar no consistent warning signs that might alert us to the risk of it. However, scientists and researchers fix discovered many things that might attribute to the causes of SIDS. SIDS almost always occurs at night when the infant is sleeping. A high incidence of SIDS is seen among premature and low birth weight children.Women who dope and let their children be exposed to smoke give their children a high risk of SIDS. Low birth rates among children have a high chance of getting SIDS. Finally there is a much high rate of SIDS when infants are placed on their stomach to sleep. (Culbertson, 8-10) nonpareil of the biggest recommendations physicians make to new parents to solar day is to let their babies sleep on their back. putt them on their back greatly decreases the risk of SIDS to their children. These are only if some of the things that have been THEORIZED by scientists and researchers that are possibilities that could be attributing factors to SIDS.But of business line these are all theories that have been developed by researchers by statistics. Statistics is ace of the greatest tools we have today to help us learn close the characteristics of SIDS. Since we dont know what it is, seeing how it works and what things we can do to help slow it down are obviously good. Throughout history, onwards SIDS was defined, the accepted explanation was that either the baby choked on itself or was rolled on by the parents during sleep. Possibly an accepted dish due to the lack of intimacy in the past but know we know that most of the time they were wrong.Since there is no cure for SIDS, scientists and researchers have been studying new ways of possibly preventing it from happening to infants. New breast feeding techniques developed over the last 30 years have rattling dramatically reduced the number of infant deaths caused by SIDS. But still we must not forget the fact we still dont know what causes SIDS itself. That is what makes this so terrible, that researchers have all these techniques to help prevent SIDS but we still dont know what we are preventing. Death by SIDS leaves a traumatic and terrible result left on the parents and family members.A SIDS death usually promotes intense emotional reactions among surviving family members. After the initial shock and disbelief, parents of ten flux into a prolonged mental picture usually of self-denial about if they killed their baby. This depression can affect their sleeping, eating, ability to concentrate, and general energy level. (Culbertson 190-193) Crying, weeping, incessant talking, and heavy feelings of guilt or anger are all normal reactions. galore(postnominal) parents experience unreasonable venerates that they or someone in their family is in danger. oer protection of surviving children and fears for future children is a common reaction.As the decisiveness of the childs death becomes a reality for the parents, recovery finally occurs. Birthdays, holidays, anniversaries often trigger painful memories of the loss (Culbertson, 186-188). Children can also be affected by the loss. Many children may develop a fear that they themselves might die. In many cases children will also feel blameable about the death feeling that possibly it was their fault. However, children may deny creation upset and try to hi de their emotions which is a reason why most parents have to talk with their children and assure them it is not going to happen to them. (Culbertson,190-193) maven of the true bright spots about the fight against SIDS is that in the last 20 years, deaths caused by SIDS have dropped dramatically in the United States and the rest of the world. Currently the average in the world among SIDS deaths is amongst 0. 5-3. 0 deaths per thousand (Culbertson,11). When comparing to that when it was first studied at about an average of 15-20 deaths per thousand(Bergman,10-11), a major improvement has been seen.However, though it isnt that high of a number, it still accounts for 20 percent of all deaths surrounded by the ages of one month and one year and 95 percent of that between 2 months and 4 months. Guntheroth,70-73). It is important to point out that most all statistics of SIDS come from developed countries, countries that have the money to perform autopsies on infants. We can only assume t hat in undeveloped countries, which have a very high infant mortality rate to begin with, the social movement of SIDS is there and probably have a much high rate than in developed countries because throughout the world, SIDS rates are very constant with one another wherever studies have and can be conducted.SIDS ranks only second to injuries as the greatest cause of death to children who are less than 15 years of age and it takes more lives than leukemia, heart disease, cystic fibrosis, and muscular dystrophy in that age period. ( Bergman, xi). So in conclusion to all of this, there still is very miniscule information on what exactly causes SIDS. Unlike other diseases, which we know the cause of, SIDS is the one that we dont have any knowledge on what the source is that causes it. One of the most important statements but dispiriting is that SIDS is a disease of theories(Bergman, 12).Everything we know, all the information that is produced and published is all just a theory becau se we dont even know what happened and what caused the death. So where do we go from here? What can be through with(p) to stop this terrible disease? Who knows. All we can do is impersonate back and hope someones theory is the right one and be thankful that this disease only affects 1-3 infants per thousand born. There are so many questions but not nearly enough answers and until that day we can only do what the experts tell us to do and hopefully the SIDS disease will almost become non-existent.